Reading Notes Week 15: Jakata Takes; The Golden Feathers

(Image of a white feather with a golden tip. I felt it symbolized the story well. Image can be sourced here.)

The story begins of a poor family which consists of a father, mother, and his beautiful daughters. The father decided he would try to get rich and come back to share it with his family. He told his family this. While traveling in the forest, he encounters a fairy.He tells the fairy of his problems and she turns him into a goose. He is sad until he looks at his reflection in a pond to see that he is a golden goose. He has feathers that are literal gold. He went back to his family and would give them a golden feather. The feather was worth a lot so it would suffice for various things (food, clothes, etc). He would only give them a feather one at a time and only after they fully used the old one. Well, the mother grew impatient one day and decided to pluck all of his feathers. She didn't know this was her husband. When she did this, the feathers turned white (not gold anymore). The fairy actually put a charm on the goose, so when the feathers are taken by force they will not be gold anymore, hence this. The goose was featherless so he could not fly. Obviously the goose had little to offer so the family stopped taking care of it. The feathers grew back but as white. The goose ended up finding other birds to live with and not the family.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Title: The Golden Feathers
Author: Noor Inayat